Description: Paice, Ashton & Lord (1977). A strange little book keeper forces Himeko to fight for the right to his selection. Her opponent? Elle. Himeko puts up an incredible defense, blocking practically everything Elle can throw at her, but still comes up a little short. What happens after that, however, might be even more unusual.
Chinatown is known for it's bustling exterior, but there's a lot more to it than the surface would imply. In fact, it holds many, many secrets. Squirreled away into the back alleys of the narrow streets, hidden among those twists and turns that make the place seem far more mysterious and ancient than it actually is are shops of... questionable status.
Ancient Chinese medicines filled with elixers and powders can be found in these secret shops, along with strange, otherworldly places where people come to buy odd and fantastic items. And still, amongst these places? Stores where nothing short of magic is sold in the form of books, tomes, and scrolls. Hidden amongst these treatures are the sum total of ten thousand years of Chinese culture.
Who knows what could be found here? A lost martial art, perhaps? Or the secret to summoning an impossibly powerful creature from beyond? Volume after volume of books, in dozens of languages haunt the shelves, collected by the cryptic, Yoda-like proprietor who sits serenely behind the low counter on a mat. Burning incense gives the air a strong spicy flavor, and the dim light keeps all these tomes preserved. Somewhere here is the key to all knowledge. It only takes a determined mind to find it.
Great scott, just how did such a store go unnoticed by a certain little Himeko? Well, it's difficult to say, maybe she's just not a really big fan of the Chinatown area. However since she had taken it upon herself to go find some easy reading books for one of her sparring partners, and she decided to take a different route back to the Hibiki Dojo, she just so happened to walk right by the store in question, and halt dead in her tracks two steps afterward.
Himeko is in her fighting get-up, since she didn't really feel like changing between runs, so when she looks into the mirror, she sees her reflection, clad in so much pink (save for her leather bookbag), and her glasses resting on top of her head. And then suddenly, an older gentleman who was just about to enter the store is nearly bowled over by the high school student, whom in just seconds flat is in front of the shelves, cupping her cheeks, stars in her eyes, and quite possibly a little bit of drool running down the corner of her cheek.
The owner probably felt a gust of wind whip by him as well.
"I.. Incredible. I don't believe I've heard of a single one of these authors." the girl mumbles to herself, really having no idea if she should be disappointed or not. But expanding ones mind had always been a trait she had pushed for in others, so she decides to be pleased about it, and almost without thought starts pulling books off of the shelves and stacks them atop one another on the floor.
"Hee hee hee." The little man seems to appear next to Himeko, seemingly out of nowhere, his diminuative robed figure somehow managing to be shorter than Himeko. "I see that you're a seeker of knowledge, my young friend," he says, massive owlish eyes staring at the girl as he hobbles about her, cane in hand. A tiny hand brushes along the spines of the books. "Hee hee hee. Quite the collection I've amassed these years. Years and years of travel."
"I've seen things, you know. All manner of things. Wonderous things. Amazing things. Man eating plants in the darkest heart of Africa, to the meditation chambers of the Great Ones," the geriatric rambles, flashing her a snaggle-toothed grin. "All of this knowledge I keep here... I save it for those that seek it."
He shakes his head, then, stopping in front of a podium with a massive volume open. "But so many have forgotten the books. They sit here, waiting, but none come to read. The computers... they claim that the computers make knowledge known to all... but when you think about it, all those computers reveal is what the masters of the computers wish you to see." The hand taps the large volume in front of him. "Books hold nothing back. They are here to be found, and read, and loved."
"Don't you agree? That such volumes, holding the collected knowledge of someone who never told another soul deserve to be explored?" As if he had teleported, the old man is there, peering up to Himeko from hehind her opposite shoulder.
"Uaaaah!!"
One book that Himeko had decided to thumb through ends up getting tossed into the air when the little man speaks up. Her green eyes wide in alarm, she's brought back to reality when the object lands spine first onto her head, and then into her outheld hand. The girl cringes, rubbing the bit spot, and then gives a meek smile of agreement. "I- Well ah, yes, I suppose I am.. I never really thought of it that way to be honest."
The small man is certainly quite a sight, though, if it weren't for the fact she visited Blanka on a regular basis, she'd probably be pretty creeped out. Mind you, she still is slightly unsettled, even moreso when he appears on her other side, in which she yelps once more, and the book again sails upward.
She turns to face the other direction then, hands clapping over her head to capture the book this time, and she nods her head quickly in agreement. "You're not kidding? Every single one of these books you've picked up yourself, citiz- erm I mean sir? And you're willing to let it all go?"
If it were some sort of sales pitch, Himeko would be caught hook, line and sinker. The value of books has always been rather high in the mind of the girl, but presented in certain ways, they could be valued as priceless. "Though, I think computers are useful in their own right, I don't really think it's fair to compare the two.. But that aside, is it true these books are really that rare?"
There's a pause, then, which makes the girl suddenly cringe at what she's to ask after that, "... Is it within my budget?"
"Is it? Are they?" He giggles again, holding up his cane to tap her on the shoulder. "But were knowledge free. Then everyone would understand the world. True knowledge, no matter how slight, is worth any price."
"But no, don't worry about money. Money is not necessary. I live a comfortable life, and I have no more need for it," he says, grinning again. "One doesn't reach my age without learning how to place his money in the proper areas, and with the right signs in the stars above, I manage nicely doing as I do."
"And yet, no. The books are not free. I have seen many things, in my life. Many things, many, many things... but then there are things that I have not seen, and things that I never tire of seeing," the little man says as he hobbles back towards the entrance to his tatami mat. "I desire entertainment, my dear. A sight that shall pique my interest. A fantastic spectacle of power and strength."
And with that, he points at the entrance, and in walks Elle: 5'10" of bad news wrapped in leather and a remarkably poor attitude. The woman seems impassive, her face expressionless as she peers down at the little old fellow. "Mogwai," she says flatly. "I got your call. I'm taking it you want me to jump through more hoops for this week's shipment?"
"Hee hee hee!" is the reply as Mogwai, the mysterious bookeeper of Chinatown points at Himeko. "I sense great potential in this one. Battle her, and you shall receive your shipment, win or lose." And with that, he hops up to the top of a shelf, looking on with glee as Elle cracks her knuckles and adjusts the straps along her back that holds her guitar in place.
"Sorry kid. This guy's a kook, but he's got stuff I need and he likes watching women fight."
COMBATSYS: Elle has started a fight here.
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Elle 0/-------/-------|
Himeko might take that back, this guy is definatly a weirdo, no two ways about it! Likable, in a really strange sort of way, but a bit too weird for her to hold conversation with that much longer. Maybe she'd feel differently if she felt nearly as wise as Mogwai, or could hold a really solid opinion on her own.
"Oh well that's fine, I wasn't really insinuating I wanted them for free.." Himeko starts, which then comes to a nervous halt as for a split moment, she thought she was dealing with a lolicon pervert. But then it's clear the entertainment he seeks is a match of some sort! Thank goodness.
Himeko takes a good look at Elle, and really isn't sure what to think upon first glance. A woman of business is about the best she can do there, a fighter for hire, maybe? She takes her glasses off of her head and sets them on the bookshelf, making sure her gaze never leaves the woman. This would be the first time she'd fought for the sake of a book.. Yet somehow, of all possible reasons to fight, this seemed to be the most natural. Comments about 'potential' or the like are lost open her as she reaches into her scarf and draws out a homemade paperback book, a grin then forming. "Well, I guess that makes two of us!"
Her tone changed suddenly, what was once meek and silent is now a slightly more confident, stereotypical superhero tone. It's two birds with one stone, really.. Because this would be an opportunity to see if her training has helped her improve over the past week. Her fists raise up in a boxers stance, and she hops from foot to foot. "Prepare to be bamboozled, It's Saikyo time!"
COMBATSYS: Himeko has joined the fight here.
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Elle 0/-------/-------|-------\-------\0 Himeko
Elle takes a closer look at Himeko and shrugs. Mogwai is a strange man that she deals with on an infrequent basis. At best, he's a man with knowledge and as he's insinuated, knowledge is power. If he says that Himeko is someone worth fighting, then Elle is going to take it at face value. Not like she has any real reason to pull punches as it is, anyhow.
She doesn't recognize the style, really. It looks like boxing, but then again, a lot of the boxers she had seen on the circuit don't even fight in a boxer's stance. Not much more time is spent trying to evaluate the girl. As long as they put on a good show, both of them will get what they want.
The older woman immediately jolts forward, her taller frame moving down the aisle with surprising speed as she rushes towards the young girl. Not wanting to upset the books and shelves to any great extent, she keeps her attack narrow and protracted by pulling out the armor plated guitar from it's holster. With a quick swing, she tries to smash the metal instrument into the young girl's face. Should it connect, however? A devestating burst of sonic chi will go off simultaneously around the young girl's head, trying to deafen her as well as help smash into her skull.
COMBATSYS: Himeko blocks Elle's Bad Reputation.
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Elle 0/-------/-------|==-----\-------\0 Himeko
Himeko's eyes squint a bit. As it stands, she can't tell a whole lot about Elle either, but she hadn't trained herself to do that quite yet. Her focus in the meantime have been solidifying her own style first. The woman just looks like a human shaped blurr at the moment..
That is until she comes in closer to fight, and things are visually crisp and clear, she fast enough to grip her book with both hands and hold it up to meet the guitar swung her way.
r% Obviously one would expect the paperback book to give and she tear right through it, but it seems like Elle had been trying to slam her weapon against a wall or something. "NNggh!" And if that weren't bad enough, it seems to be doing an astounding job of absorbing that sonic energy as well, something she never had really taught herself to do in the first place. Perhaps that's why it still make her cringe and take a couple of steps back with one of her gloved hands raised to her ear. "Looks like this one's going to be a toughie," Himeko says to herself as she fans herself with the paperback. She then swings her arm forward, as if about to throw the book like a frisbee, but keeps her grip at the peack of her throw. What follows is a sudden chain of paper extending from it and diagonally low so it aims for Elle's ankle. Unless she does something to prevent it, the paper wraps about the rockers calves.
She snaps the link like a whip, so that when the wave reaches the end she's snapped into the air and slammed right onto the floor seemingly with little effort!
COMBATSYS: Elle endures Himeko's Picture Pages.
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Elle 0/-------/-----==|===----\-------\0 Himeko
Elle's not used to being attacked by books, so she hesitates for a moment as Himeko goes to attack her with a paperback, and her normally inexpressive eyes widen a bit when the pages fly out to entangle her. Completely unexpected, the attack hurls her off her feet, causing her to slam down to the ground like a ton of bricks. The rocker chick is a little bit sturdier than she looks.
Nevertheless, Elle's able to roll to her feet fairly easily, stadying herself as she uses the momentum from the throw to hurl herself forward again. Taking advantage of the recovery time between attacking and preparing a defense for the inevitable response, Elle takes a short leap forward, and whirls her body around in a sharp spin.
As she does so, she slams her weapon back into it's holder and whirls her free hand just inches from the younger girl's face. Suddenly, her palm erupes in a fury of electrical energy, expunging a bolt of power meant to send Himeko flying across the stacks of books behind her!
COMBATSYS: Himeko blocks Elle's High Voltage.
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Elle 0/-------/----===|=====--\-------\0 Himeko
Himeko lets out a small sigh of relief. For a moment she thought she wouldn't be able to buy herself a moment or two. Naturally she's suprised that Elle is amazingly quick with her recovery, the rocker coming in close while she's in the middle of setting her free hand on her knee and is slightly slouched.
The little Hurricane straightens up quickly enough and actually has no idea what's coming her way until the last moment- The hand snaps in front of her face and her eyes cross in mild confusion. Yet somehow she's fast enough to whip the book weilding hand to Elle's palm, just millimeters from it which causes the sudden burst of electrical power to crackle along the cover, stray bolts striking her shoulders as the force still manages to blow her back quite a few feet.
"Pretty good!" Hime calls out, "It looks like I'm going to have to really work for this victory, all right then, Hurricane, go!"
Himeko's turn to close in on Elle now, and if she can get close enough without getting interrupted, she'll slip behind the older woman and wrap her arms about the others waist. Her feet plant firmly on the ground as she'd lurch backward and land a serious suplex onto the ground! And of course not toward the bookshelves. So then.. What was the boxers stance for again?
COMBATSYS: Elle blocks Himeko's Medium Throw.
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Elle 0/-------/----===|======-\-------\0 Himeko
Himeko's putting up a decent fight. Elle, however, is fairly relentless and doesn't look like she's much of a talker. Instead, when the little girl comes close and wraps her arms around her waist, Elle twsits her substantially larger body about, wrenching free of the young girl's crasp. It takes some doing, however, and Elle doesn't walk away completely untouched.
It would seem that the little girl loves her books, and knows how to use them in an interesting weapon-like fighting style, not unlike that of people that fight with sheilds and bucklers. Odd. Still, Elle's not done yet. Her pounding away at the little girl's defenses will eventually break them down.
Again, she pulls out her armored guitar, pressing forward. Spinning the weaponized instrument rapidly with one hand, she heaves forward, attempting to force Himeko to deal with rapid fire heavy attacks from her oddly-shaped weapon as she attempts to pound through the little girl's book and batter her around the head and shoulders.
COMBATSYS: Himeko fails to interrupt Random Weapon from Elle with Strong Throw.
- Power fail! -
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Elle 0/-------/---====|=======\===----\1 Himeko
No response? Well, Himeko can't say it wasn't entirely unexpected, but being left hanging like that forces her to just give a nervous laugh instead. Well, all right that's fine, she can talk with her fists (or rather book) as well!
This time when Elle comes swinging at her, she doesn't look like she's really up for attempting another defense with her book and forgoes it to instead reach for the womans weapon in mid-strike. The guitar slipping by her attempt, it smashes firmly across the side of her head, followed by the shoulders and back that at the end of the combination sends her reeling back to the opposite end of the shop in which she slams hard against the wall and then collapses to the ground with one serious pain.
"Rrgh, must've made the wrong choice," she grumbles to herself, seeming to be completely dazed judging by the fact she's swaggering from side to side like a drunkard.
Elle takes a step back. Himeko seems.. different than most people she fights. Normally, they're focused with grim determination, or filled with preachy soliloquies. Even when she does battle with silent types such as herself, there's a grim understanding. Himeko, however, is a rank amature. Her awkwardness is enough to give Elle breif pause. There's 'innocence' as a result of an artificail upbringing, and then there's true innocence.
Elle's not sure which part of that Hmeko fits under, but she suspects the latter. The idea, however, is shaken from her head almost as fast as it pops in. If Himeko fancies herself a fighter, then so be it.
Elle doesn't waste any time as she shoots by the gleefully clapping Mogwai arm outstretched. The woman's hand is like a steel claw as she reaches for Himeko's collarbone. She tries to clamp her hand down on it before raising the girl into the air and slamming her face first into the floor as if she was some kind of stake or tent peg.
COMBATSYS: Himeko interrupts Quick Throw from Elle with Ghost Writer.
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Elle 0/-------/-======|=======\=====--\1 Himeko
Normally Himeko -is- focused with grim determination of filled with preachy soliloquies.. However the girl didn't realize until now that it's only because of the atmosphere; in Neo League fights and SNF matches, she wants to really impress the crowd, make them laugh, get them really interested in her as a fighter and her 'gimmick' to push the importance of reading and such.
But this fight is really like none she'd had experienced before. This would be the first time she had fought for something she desired for personal gain. It's extremely quiet, no crowd but a single person to feed off. This may be a moment when she may actually be being her true self.
But that's simply too deep a point for her to even try to be grasping at the moment. Right now she's being put to the test and she's going to deliver! For a moment it seems Elle has it in the bag, the little Hurricane is grabbed and then slammed to the floor, however she manages to get her hands down in time so that the floor squeaks loudly from the impact, but there's definatly no crack. Her knees drop quickly to the ground, and from her crouched position she bursts upward, the spine of her book slamming under Elles chin "Take this!!"
Obviously a dragon punch inspired technique, though lacking the finesse of Ken or Ryu. And with a twirl in the air she lands heavily to the floor again, holding the side of her head once more. She hopes that one put a dent in the rocker chicks health!
Quick and surprising is what it is. It just lacks stopping power, and that alone is enough to keep Elle on the offensive instead of falling into a more defensive stance. Try as the little hurrican might, Elle's built too sturdily. Himeko has made headway though... moreso than some people she's had to battle in the past. That being said, Elle kicks her offensive strategy up a notch.
Her eyes flick across the bookstore as she maps out the terrain of the battlefeild. As she spots the proper locus points for her next strike, Elle's eyes lock back onto Himeko, her jaw set in grim determination. Let's see the little nit handle this.
Elle leaps into the air at an angle, and pushes off again against the heavy bookcase. The sturdy teakwood filled with massive, heavy books barely totters as she shoves off to flip behind the little girl. As she lands, Elle's hands reach down for the smaller girl's head. If she should connect, Elle will lift her into the air by her head, and twist sharply, sending her spinning around in midair.
COMBATSYS: Himeko blocks Elle's 17 Crash.
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Elle 0/-------/-======|=======\======-\1 Himeko
Himeko, on the other hand, doesn't even need to bother looking around the terrain. Some might say it's a careless or overconfident act for a fighter, but the bottom line is the Hurricane feels at her best, she feels at home when surrounded by literiture.
So of course she doesn't look confused at all, in fact she looks really impressed when Elle actually makes use of the surroundings, the leap off the bookcase is quick, but not fast enough to not know what's coming. Her hands shoot up, her book held between thumb and palm, which meets the clap, but leaves her with complete control over her body when the twirl follow, she slamming a foot against the tip of one of the shelves that also helps in stopping her top-like twirling.
Hime drops to the floor and has both of her hands raised, her book clasped between her palms and thumbs crossed; like she were holding a gun in her crouched position. Her tongue stick out slightly and then her shoulders jerk, a burst of wind sending her oversized scarf whipping backward and a sheet of paper ripping forward from the book, followed by steady stream of 'shots' afterward, not unlike a machinegun. Obviously there's more to it than it seems, each perfectly rigid page, should it strike Elle, would feel like she was getting assaulted by a flurry of punches!
COMBATSYS: Elle endures Himeko's Schoolhouse Rock!.
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Elle 1/-------/=======|=====--\-------\0 Himeko
The pages batter against Elle's armored hide. It's unusual to say the least, and Elle's initial response is to toss up her heaviest defenses. As the assault continues to cascade against her, Elle's mind changes. The blows simply aren't doing enough damage to her to the point where she seems genuinely concerned. Certainly, it's painful, and her faice locks into a grimace as she staggers at first, and them stomps her way straight through the onslaught of rushing pages.
Bursting free of the blizzard of iron paper, Elle's already going in for the kill. Her guitar lifted high overhead, the weapon is already spinning rapidly, looking like a blurring disk as she attempt to bring it down in a powerful overhead smash onto Himeko.
The little girl is showing a good accounting for herself, and Elle is, no matter how slightly, impressed. Odds are the little girl wouldn't be interested in associating herself with a frequently heartless and violent woman like Elle, though. A shame.
COMBATSYS: Himeko dodges Elle's Random Weapon.
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Elle 1/-------/=======|=====--\-------\0 Himeko
You know the look those cartoon characters get when they're sure they've got the villain on the ropes? The look of confidence and relief that thing are going there way? But then the villain steps out of the massive cloud of dust and the heroe's jaw kind of drops?
That's pretty much what's going on with Himeko, there, once Elle realizes she can deal with the 'best' Hime has to dish out. ".. Oh crud." She's definatly going to have to hit the sandbag a few hundred more times and work on that.
The good news, though, is that she does have time to shuffle and move, Elle is slightly slowed down, and it looks like she's going to be doing business with that guitar of hers again. The little Hurricane hugs the book to herself, steels up her stance a bit, and then leaps to the side and up to settle the heel of her foot on the very edge of a bookself. This probably leaves Elle slamming the dangerous looking weapon straight into the ground. The smaller fighter though is gaining more height leaping to the opposite shelf and then jumps up one final time... So she can drop down onto Elle, her arms raised and foot extended, dropping like a little missle.
COMBATSYS: Elle blocks Himeko's Strong Kick.
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Elle 1/------=/=======|======-\-------\0 Himeko
Elle's not interested in cinematics, no matter how nifty things might look. Instead, she's focused on one thing: flattening Himeko like a pancake. The girl is tenacious and spirited and is definitely wearing down her more battle-worn opponent. Elle can feel the fatigue setting in. As Himeko drops in from the sky, Elle's forced to backpedal, one arm raised to batter away the incoming attack. The assault breaks through Elle's heavy defenses slightly, but not enough to cause extreme damage.
As she recovers, she begins to charge up her aura. The bookstore begins to rumble slightly, the shelves and loose objects rattling and clattering about as she summons up the sonic chi at her disposal. The soundwaves shake the room at an almost violent level as Elle's chi draws into her, filling her up with more power.
Her eyes never leave Himeko, though. She's likely got something planneed, and if she has her way, Himeko won't be pleased with the results.
COMBATSYS: Elle gathers her will.
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Elle 1/--=====/=======|======-\-------\0 Himeko
Himeko doesn't plan on becoming a pancake anytime soon, thanks. The moment her feet slam down on Elle, she springs backward and drops into her fighting stance once more. But Elle isn't striking immedietly back. Himeko has learned at this point what this generally means, but she didn't expect it in the form of making the place shake and nudge books right off of their shelves.
In fact the moment she notices that some are falling, she seems to completely forget about the match, green eyes widening as she lets out a squeak and starts leaping backward, capturing the ones that fly open upon decent rather than taking a less damaging spine-first landing. "Wait wait wait!! Time out, quit it!" She cries.
COMBATSYS: Himeko focuses on her next action.
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Elle 1/--=====/=======|======-\-------\0 Himeko
Quit it? Not quite. Elle's pretty much through messing around here. It's time to end this thing so she can get on her way. Mogwai's seen enough, accourding to her, and as much as she enjoys letting old people watch her throw down just so she can get a shipment of rare materials, Elle's not one that likes to dawdle all that much. Falling back on her haunches for a moment, she then bursts forward at a surprising clip, rushing towards the girl at an accellerated pace.
As she approaches, her left hand is drawn back, hand already crackling with energy. As she reaches Himeko, she thrusts it forward, attempting to grabn the little girl by the face. If she connects? Well, there's going to be a whole lot of hurting involved.
COMBATSYS: Himeko blocks Elle's Slayer.
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Elle 0/-------/-----==|=======\=------\1 Himeko
Instead of striking clean, however, Elle's attack falls a little short. Her hand fires off a burst of chi, but she stumbles over a fallen book, which causes the blast to hit Himeko. Her follow through on the grab, however, never occurs, leaving the rocker a little over extended.
With four books stacked in one hand, and six in another, it looks like Himeko is in a lot of trouble when Elle comes dashing forward with the intent of ending it here and now. But the girls focus didn't seem entirely on those books; though one could also easily chalk off her instincts as complete and utter dumb luck.
It shouldn't suprise her that Elle isn't going to hold back, and Hime looks more open than ever. However, it'd seem that Elle may not have completely let sink in that so long as she HAS a book in her hand, there's always a mode of defense.
"I'm sorry," she squeaks, apparently to the inanimate objects in her hands, she clapping them all togeather like a giant stack of legoblocks, and when the energy slams into them. However there's no perfect defense here, the three books in the center loosen and slam into the girls chest, the others falling from her grip but land 'safely' on their face. She really had to overextend herself to make that happen though, so for the first time this match, the pink-clad fighter is looking a bit worn down.
What does it take to finish her off? Probably not much more, it'd seem, "All right, I've gone one last chance.."
Elle may or may not have heard Himeko murmur those words, but even she can see that the rope of victory is depressingly far. Himeko bursts forward one more time, "Oryaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!" she starts her combination off with a knee to Elle's gut, and then a flurry of attacks follow, one hand unsheathing a paper fan from her belt, which she uses to try and smack Elle right between the eyes, it stops short. It's followed then by more kicks, high and low that's finally finished off with a crouch, and then a burst upward, the spine of her book leading the way as a 'tail' of papers trail under it. And like a slinky snap back one at a time rapidly, tagging in just a few more hits into it all.
COMBATSYS: Himeko successfully hits Elle with 3-2-1 Contact.
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Elle 0/-------/----===|=------\-------\0 Himeko
True to Himeko's flashy attack, Elle is battered about, her solid figure being battered around like a rag doll, each successive hit striking true. The knee, the fan, the rapid series of paper scoring every single hit on the mercenary rocker like it was meant to all along. With the final swoop and flurry of the rapid paper trail, Elle is sent backwards into a pile of books, tossing up a heap of reading materials.
She stays down for about two seconds.
The white haired rocker, for all the damage she's been given, doesn't seem to be falling down. She seems to just absorb everything the little Hurricane can toss at her and keep on trucking. Not to say it's not making things difficult. She's looking fairly weary now, but the fatigue seems more because of the length of the fight than the damage inflicted.
Elle raises a hand languidly, and narrows her eyes. Maybe the firast attempt didn't put this to an end, but perhaps this will. Blue energy begins to crackle from her fingertips, growing more violent with each passing millisecond before lancing forth from her hands, the blast shooting forth to barbecue the young fighter.
COMBATSYS: Himeko slows High Voltage from Elle with Weekend Special.
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Elle 0/-------/---====|===----\-------\0 Himeko
Himeko could only grunt when Elle had managed to get to her feet once more. Again it looked like her assault would pull her back into the game, but unfortunatly that simply just sin't the case at all. With the rocker back on her feet, and ready to show some more of that electrical power to the pink-clad fighter, it looks like Hime has once more trick up her sleeve that she thinks may help pull her through. She grips the pages, and then tears them out, three of them in total between her knuckles that go from wavy to rigid in a blink of an eye. She whips them like frisbees, but while the deliverance is quick, it's not quick enough to completely diminsh the power of the rocker, leaving her with an expression of annoyance when the energy strikes her anyway and causes her to stumble back once more.
She takes a good look at the situation, and with a sigh she shakes her head, "I don't think I'm good enough yet to win this one.. I concede."
It's important to consider where words come from. Not in terms of etymology, but of who says them and what they mean. Elle's face frowns when her 'final' strike turns into a minor annoyance by Himeko's quick thinking, but when Himeko concedes defeat, Elle shakes her head. "I never thought I'd ever hear that."
And for the first time, in a long time, Elle concedes something herself.
"No, you're not. But you /will/ be," is the follow up, and the dour faced woman's expression never shifts, remaining the blank, emotionless mask it tends to be. "You've lasted a hell of a lot longer against me than some people that have been fighting for years. You don't have a solid style yet... your approach is frankly atrocious... but your defensive strategy is /really/ impressive." Her voice is dry and cool. The compliments don't come easy, either, more or less dragged kicking and screaming from her conscience. Encouraging children isn't something she likes to do, but she has to when it's warranted. It's in her nature to acknowledge certain things.
And one of those things is when you give it all for something you want. Not for 'honor' or 'glory'... but when it's something for /you/, and you alone... that's when you get tested, and that's when you fight like you mean it.
"You and I are different," Elle says, and she exhales slowly, "here." She taps her chest. "But up here? I think we might be the same." She taps her temple. "You may have conceded, but I didn't want this as much as you did. If this had been something I needed, you would have won by now."
"You won, not me."
She turns to Mogwai, and motions. "Let her have what she wants. I'll come by and pick up my stuff later." And with that? Elle turns to leave. If Himeko wants to say anything to her, she had best do it quickly.
COMBATSYS: Elle has left the fight here.
[ \\\\\\ <
Himeko 0/-------/----===|
Hurricane Hime finds herself at a bit of a loss, herself. The much smaller fighter looks up to Elle seeming a little lost at first, but then smiles a bit.
She's not entirely sure why she's smiling, though part of it might be that despite her cut-throat fighting style, her words otherwise suggest she's not some sort of up-and-go assasination machine.
"Th- Thank you!" Is pretty much all she can reply, waving her hands to the womans back, which fall to her sides afterward as she takes another look around. She won't pretend she understand all of what the woman said, but it is etched into her brain, and she feels she may have understood at least the core of it.
She could worry about it all later during meditation though, right now she was suddenly like a kid in a candy store. Give her about seven minutes, and she'll have a stack of seventeen books she's quite interested in having Mogwai part from to carry home.
Log created on 23:55:25 07/11/2007 by Elle, and last modified on 17:57:51 07/15/2007.